The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish - Hardcover

Martin, Jacqueline Briggs

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 061800341X ISBN 13: 9780618003419

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2001

Synopsis

In 1913, a Canadian Arctic Expedition becomes stranded in the Arctic and, even with the skills of the Iħupiat family and hunters who were part of the expedition, their odds for survival were grim. By the author of Snowflake Bentley.

About this title

About the Author

Jacqueline Briggs Martin is the author of Snowflake Bentley, winner of the 1999 Caldecott Medal, and The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish, an ALA Notable Book, a Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book, Riverbank Review Finalist, Notable Social Studies Trade book and winner of The Golden Kite Award for Illustration. She grew up on a farm in Maine much like the one in this story. She lives in Mt. Vernon, Iowa.

From Publishers Weekly

The author merges fact and conjecture with mixed results in this dense account of the 1913 expedition of a ship named the Karluk (the Aleutian word for "fish"). The vessel sailed north from British Columbia toward the Arctic Circle and stopped at Alaska's Point Barrow to pick up an I?upiaq family. The expedition's mission, "to study the plants and people in the high north," takes a backseat when the Karluk becomes locked in ice and eventually sinksAsurvival becomes the crew's goal. Unlike Snow Bentley, in which Martin neatly balanced the historical framework with telling anecdotes, here details of the expedition outweigh the human storyAdespite some interesting facts (e.g., "Qiruk, the mother, could look at a man,/ cut a fur skin with her round-bladed ulu, and sew a pair of pants/ that would fit him exactly"). Though the author guesses about how various family members feel while awaiting rescue (she writes about one daughter, "Maybe she looked into the seal oil lamp and heard/ her grandmother singing the song of home./ And she did not feel so lonely"), Martin does not speculate about why the I?upiaq family leaves their grandmother and their home to travel by sea with strangers. Despite scattered moments of suspense and Krommes's (Grandmother Winter) engaging, earth-toned scratchboard art, youngsters are apt to find this journey laborious and slow moving. Ages 6-up. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 061800341X
• ISBN 13: 9780618003419
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 48